Well it's sort of a slow news day on the politics front, and since we're tying up loose ends around here, I thought I might write a more general post in which we all consider the question: Who is the most appalling American of the Tomasky blog era (back to mid-2008, I think)?

After giving the matter a full three minutes' consideration, my list of the top five contenders would look like this. And this is limited to people involved in politics, which excludes not only murderers and such like but also Bernie Madoff and the heads of all those banks who helped ruin the country:1. Certain former half-term governor2. Donald Trump (with a bullet!)3. Michele Bachmann4. Andrew Breitbart5. Karl Rove

I'd say that is a pretty solid list. The Embarracudah, of course. What can we say. She's just like a giant lizard creature from the netherworld, out of one of those old Japanese sci-fi movies, standing above the United States pouring massive buckets of radioactive excrement over everything she sees. And she will appear in sequel after sequel alas.

Trump has made an impressively fast push to come from almost nowhere (in political terms) to establishing himself as America's most prominent and toxic race-baiter. Well played!

Bachmann: solid, reliable .290 hitter. Breitbart, partly for his lies and partly on style. And Rove just because.

Conservatives, of course you will see things differently, and we welcome your input. We all might as well have one last good and proper fight. Tomorrow we get a quiz and a farewell post, so I expect it'll be a bit touchy-feely, so let's get our ya-ya's out today.

And by the way, since I know our friend Erskine will have some thoughts about this post, let me ask something that's always bugged me. Erskine, what's with the handle? Because the real Erskine Caldwell, you see (and note the slightly different spelling), was pretty much a socialist, writing very popular novels in the 1920s and 30s denouncing poverty and racism. And if the answer starts "But if Erskine Caldwell were around today, he would be a..." then I'm sorry I asked.